Some 1,000 Pakistani Shi'a Muslims protested in the southwest of the country for a second day, blocking a main road with the bodies of relatives killed in bomb attacks earlier this week.

The protesters, who blocked the highway with some 50 coffins, are demanding that the central government provide better security.

They are furious because of security lapses they say are responsible for the twin bombings on January 10 of a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood in the city of Quetta that killed more than 80 people.

The dead included police, rescuers, and journalists who rushed there to help the victims after the first attack.

The Sunni militant Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group has claimed responsibility.

Protesters want the provincial government dismissed and the administration of the city to be handed over to the army.

More than 30 other people were also killed January 10 in a separate bombing in Quetta, claimed by Baluch separatists, and in a bombing in the northwestern Swat Valley.

On January 11, U.S, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland denounced the sectarian and separatist attacks.

"We obviously stand with the people of Pakistan in strongly condemning these senseless and inhumane acts," she said. "And more broadly, we remain concerned about extremist violence of any kind in Pakistan and remain committed to working with the government of Pakistan to combat terror."